Scrooge McDuck

Scrooge McDuck is a fictional character created by artist Carl Barks for The Walt Disney Company's comic books. Scrooge is the uncle of Donald Duck, and is likely meant to be a caricature of Andrew Carnegie. The first member of the Clan McDuck to appear in the comics, Scrooge's name was based on Ebenezer Scrooge, a character from Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol.

Comics history

First appearance

Scrooge, maternal uncle of previously established character Donald Duck, made his first appearance in "Christmas on Bear Mountain" in December 1947, a story written and drawn by artist Carl Barks. The story's title was based on "Night on Bald Mountain" by Modest Mussorgsky (the source of a scene in Fantasia featuring Chernabog). A prototype for Scrooge McDuck, however, appeared earlier in the 1943 cartoon "Spirit of '43," in which Scrooge (or his prototype) reminds Donald to save his money to support the war effort.

Related Topics:
December - 1947 - Carl Barks - Night on Bald Mountain - Modest Mussorgsky - Fantasia - Chernabog - 1943 - Spirit of '43 - War effort

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Scrooge did not yet have his familiar characteristics in his first comic story. In "Christmas on Bear Mountain," Scrooge was a bearded, bespectacled, reasonably wealthy old man, visibly leaning on his cane. He was living in isolation in a "huge mansion", which is said to be influenced by Xanadu from Orson Welles's Citizen Kane. Scrooge has always been a somewhat bitter character, but his misanthropic thoughts in this first story are probably less characteristic of Scrooge than those of his rival Flintheart Glomgold: "Here I sit in this big lonely dump, waiting for Christmas to pass! Bah! That silly season when everybody loves everybody else! A curse on it! Me - I'm different! Everybody hates me, and I hate everybody!"

Related Topics:
Xanadu - Orson Welles - Citizen Kane - Misanthropic - Flintheart Glomgold

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In the story, Scrooge plans to entertain himself by inviting his nephews Donald, Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck to his mountain cabin and then scaring them out of it. This early version of Scrooge is said to have a lot in common with The Simpsons' character of Mr. Burns.

Related Topics:
Huey, Dewey and Louie Duck - The Simpsons' - Mr. Burns

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As a recurring character

Barks would later claim that he originally only intended to use Scrooge as a one-shot character, but then decided Scrooge could prove useful in further stories. Barks continued to experiment with Scrooge's appearance and personality over the next four years.

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Scrooge's second appearance, in "The Old Castle's Secret" (first published in June 1948), had Scrooge recruiting his nephews to search for a family treasure hidden in Dismal Downs, the McDuck family's ancestral castle, built in the middle of Rannoch Moor in Scotland. "Foxy Relations" (first published in November 1948) was the first story where Scrooge is called by his title and catchphrase "The Richest Duck in the World".

Related Topics:
The Old Castle's Secret - June - 1948 - Rannoch Moor - Scotland - November - Catchphrase

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First hints of Scrooge's past

"Voodoo Hoodoo," first published in August 1949, was the first story to hint at Scrooge's past with the introduction of two figures from it. The first was Foola Zoola, an old African sorcerer and chief of the Voodoo tribe who had cursed Scrooge, seeking revenge for the destruction of his village and the taking of his tribe's lands by Scrooge decades ago.

Related Topics:
August - 1949 - Africa - Voodoo

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Scrooge privately admitted to his nephews that he had used an army of "cut-throats" to get the tribe to abandon their lands, in order to establish a diamond-mining colony. The event was placed in 1879 during the story, but it would later be retconned to 1909 to fit with Scrooge's later-established personal history.

Related Topics:
Diamond - 1879 - Retcon - 1909

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The second figure was Bombie the zombie, the organ of the sorcerer's curse and revenge. He had reportedly sought Scrooge for decades before reaching Duckburg, mistaking Donald for Scrooge. It should be noted that Bombie was not really undead and Foola Zoola did not practice necromancy.

Related Topics:
Zombie - Duckburg - Undead - Necromancy

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Barks, with a note of skepticism often found in his stories, explained the zombie as a living person who has never died, but has somehow gotten under the influence of a sorcerer. Although some scenes of the story were intended as a parody of Bela Lugosi's White Zombie, the story is the first to not only focus on Scrooge's past but also touch on the darkest aspects of his personality.

Related Topics:
Skepticism - Parody - Bela Lugosi - White Zombie

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Precursors to later stories

"Trail of the Unicorn", first published in February 1950, introduced Scrooge's private zoo. One of his pilots had managed to photograph the last living unicorn, which lived on the Indian part of the Himalayas. Scrooge offered a reward to competing cousins Donald Duck and Gladstone Gander to whoever would be the first to capture the unicorn for his collection of animals.

Related Topics:
February - 1950 - Zoo - Unicorn - India - Himalayas - Gladstone Gander

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This was also the story which introduced his private airplane. Barks would later establish Scrooge as an experienced aviator. Donald had previously been shown as also being a skilled aviator, with Flintheart also being shown as such in later stories. In comparison, Huey, Dewey and Louie were only depicted having taken flying lessons in the story "Frozen Gold" (published in January 1945).

Related Topics:
Airplane - Aviator - January - 1945

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"The Pixilated Parrot", first published in July 1950, introduced the precursor to Scrooge's money bin; in this story, Scrooge's central office building is said to contain "three cubic acres of money". Two nameless burglars who briefly appear during the story are considered to be the precursors of the Beagle Boys.

Related Topics:
July - 1950 - Beagle Boys

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Scrooge as a major character

"The Magic Hourglass", first published in September 1950, was arguably the first story to change the focus of the Duck stories from Donald to Scrooge. During the story, several themes were introduced for Scrooge.

Related Topics:
September - 1950

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Donald first mentions in this story that his uncle practically owns Duckburg, a statement that Scrooge's rival John D. Rockerduck would later put in dispute. Scrooge first hints that he wasn't born into wealth, as he remembers buying the Hourglass of the story in Morocco when he was a member of a ship's crew as a cabin boy. It is also the first story in which Scrooge mentions speaking another language besides his native English and reading other alphabets besides the Latin alphabet, as during the story, he speaks Arabic and reads the Arabic alphabet.

Related Topics:
John D. Rockerduck - Morocco - English - Latin alphabet - Arabic - Arabic alphabet

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The later theme would be developed further in later stories. Barks and current Scrooge writer Don Rosa have depicted Scrooge as being fluent in Arabic, Dutch, German, Mongolian, Spanish, Mayan, and various dialects of Chinese. Scrooge acquired this knowledge from years of living or traveling to the various regions of the world where those languages are spoken. Later writers would depict Scrooge having at least working knowledge of several other languages.

Related Topics:
Don Rosa - Arabic - Dutch - German - Mongolian - Spanish - Mayan - Chinese

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Scrooge was shown in "The Magic Hourglass" in a more positive light than in previous stories, but his more villainous side is present too. Scrooge is seen in this story attempting to reacquire a magic hourglass that he gave to Donald, before finding out that it acted as a protective charm for him. To convince his nephews to return it, he pursues them throughout Morocco, where they had headed to earlier in the story. Memorably during the story, Scrooge interrogates Donald by having him tied up and tickled with a feather in an attempt to get Donald to reveal the hourglass' location. Scrooge finally manages to retrieve it, exchanging it for a flask of water, as he had found his nephews exhausted and left in the desert with no supplies. As Scrooge explains, he intended to give them a higher offer, but he just could not resist having somebody at his mercy without taking advantage of it.

Related Topics:
Hourglass - Water

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Final developments

"A Financial Fable", first published in March 1951, had Scrooge teaching Donald some lessons in productivity as the source of wealth, along with the laws of supply and demand. Perhaps more importantly, it was also the first story where Scrooge observes how diligent and industrious Huey, Louie and Dewey are, making them more similar to himself rather than to Donald. Donald in Barks' stories is depicted as working hard on occasion, but given the choice often proves to be a shirker. The three younger nephews first side with Scrooge rather than Donald in this story, with the bond between grand-uncle and grandnephews strengthening in later stories.

Related Topics:
March - 1951 - Supply and demand

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"Terror of the Beagle Boys", first published in November 1951, introduced the readers to the Beagle Boys, although Scrooge in this story seems to be already familiar with them. "The Big Bin on Killmotor Hill" introduced Scrooge's money bin, built on Killmotor Hill in the center of Duckburg.

Related Topics:
November - 1951 - Bin

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By this point, Scrooge had become familiar to readers in the United States and Europe. Other Disney writers and artists besides Barks began using Scrooge in their own stories, including Italian writer Romano Scarpa. Western Publishing, the then-publisher of the Disney comics, started thinking about using Scrooge as a protagonist rather than a supporting character, and decided to launch Scrooge in his own self-titled comic. Uncle Scrooge #1, featuring the story "Only a Poor Old Man", was published in March 1952. This story along with "Back to the Klondike," first published a year later in March 1953, became the biggest influences in how Scrooge's character, past, and beliefs would become defined.

Related Topics:
United States - Europe - Italian - Romano Scarpa - Western Publishing - March - 1952 - Back to the Klondike - 1953

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After this point, Barks produced most of his longer stories in Uncle Scrooge, with a focus mainly on adventure, while his ten-page stories for other Disney comics continued to feature Donald as the star and focused on comedy. In Scrooge's stories, Donald and his nephews were cast as Scrooge's assistants, who accompanied Scrooge in his adventures around the world. This change of focus from Donald to Scrooge was also reflected in stories by other contemporary writers. Since then, Scrooge remains a central figure of the Duck comics' universe, thus the coining of the term "Scrooge McDuck Universe".

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